Parenthood.

Parenthood is so hard. No one really prepares you for it. Probably because that is an impossible task.  How could anyone prepare you for a job that has so many roles wrapped up into it?

Andrew has been traveling a lot. Like 2-3 overnights a week on average. It can be tough. The joy of working from home is that I don't have to miss a moment. The tough part of working from home is that I don't miss a moment. The good and bad, the ugly, the tantrums, the whining, the fights and fits-I'm there for it all. And it is exhausting.

There are days where I feel like I aced the test of the day. The day to day items were taken care of but the whole day seemed to be sprinkled with fun, laughter, joy. Then there are days when I crawl into my bed and swallow giant sobs because I feel like I failed so miserably.

Talk about peaks and valleys.

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Andrew and I got Netflix right around Christmastime (Get with the times, I know!!) and just a week or so ago got around to starting a new (to us) series, Parenthood. (Again, we are beyond behind. We know. Be kind.)

The very first episode I was hooked. Any show that can have me laughing out loud one minute and tearing up the next has me. Throw in the chaos of real life, family issues, and the raw honesty that can have you hating a sibling and then backing them up--you've got yourself a fan!!!

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I was thinking how true to life that show is. No nice, neat bow to wrap up every episode. Some real messes. Some real trials. Some situations that not all families walk through together and come out on the other side in tact.

I think what draws me in to the show, besides the hilarity and emotion of it all, is that the show is one giant mess wrapped in love and grace.

Isn't it? And isn't that what we all want? To know that in this life, with this family we are given, that no matter the circumstance we will come out the other side in tact because at the end of the day, love and grace abounds,

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I think of my boys. So close in age that it is beautiful and exhausting. Their personalities are developing so rapidly that it often causes clashes of their wills. But in the next minute, I see Beau comforting Gabe, Hudson giving up a toy, or body-shaking laughter among the three of them to some joke I am not privy to.

This parenting thing, being their mom, is hard.  I know it is only for a season. But I know every new season brings a new kind of hard. I can only pray that love and grace abounds from our home. That in all we do, it is the guiding force of our parenting, of our choices, of our words.